1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for segmenting an electronic image, and more specifically relates to segmenting electronic images using JPEG DCT coefficient information.
2. Related Art
In order to reduce processing costs, banks and other institutions are seeking to store and process more and more paper documents, including checks, as electronic images. New laws are furthering this movement by, for example, allowing banks to transfer only the check images and associated data for downstream processing. This reduces the requirement for a bank to physically handle and forward paper checks after they are initially received and processed at the bank. However, such scenarios require efficient systems for processing electronic images.
One particular challenge involves capturing information from an electronic image. For instance, in an electronic image of a bank check, the bank may want to identify specific textual or written areas from the check image, such as dollar amounts, signatures, etc. In order to automate this process, foreground elements or segments on the document must be distinguished from the background. Currently there exist numerous solutions in the industry, but most tend to be mathematically complex. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,657, “Image Processing Method and Apparatus,” issued on Nov. 30, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference, utilizes an orthogonal transformation to achieve an image cut out. Such a system requires intensive computations that can substantially increase processing times and costs.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simple and efficient method of segmenting an electronic image to distinguish foreground information from a background region.